


Here I Am, Lay It All On The Line

by FayeHunter



Series: Tangled Muke AU [5]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: M/M, it's the final scene of tangled so you know, michael gets a little stabbed but he's fine!, staying on brand with the Muke tonight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26113141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FayeHunter/pseuds/FayeHunter
Summary: Luke's had a terrible day. Michael's left him and now he's stuck going back to the tower with Mother. And then it gets worse.Hey more tangled!
Relationships: Michael Clifford/Luke Hemmings
Series: Tangled Muke AU [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876993
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Here I Am, Lay It All On The Line

**Author's Note:**

  * For [expectopatronuz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/expectopatronuz/gifts).



> Is anyone still reading this AU? Anyway, [Maggie](https://calumsclifford.tumblr.com/) asked me for the final haircut scene in Tangled for this AU so I have written it! Staying on brand with the club yelling about Muke tonight!

Luke is miserable. He’s lost Michael, lost his only real chance of escaping his prison and seeing the world. He doesn’t even know where Michael is, just that he’s gone and only Mother is here, comforting him and telling him to forget about him. They’d whispered all their plans to each other in the boat, basking in the glow of the lanterns. Michael had planned to take Luke far away, far enough that Mother could never find them. And now Michael is just  _ gone. _

Mother has been saying something about how Michael took the crown, left Luke, that “it was all a lie” and “I told you if you left the tower you’d only find heartbreak. If you had just listened I could have kept you safe from all this,” but Luke knows it’s not right. Michael kissed him, hugged him, traveled all this way with him,  _ held him. _ He wouldn’t just leave him. Michael is many things: snappy, sharp, funny, caring. He wouldn’t leave Luke with all these promises and hopes.

Mother has been holding Luke the whole time on their way back to the tower. She keeps trying to shush his muffled sobs, rubbing a hand gently on his hair. It’s knocking the flowers from his braid and he feels just as wilted and sad as they look. Petunia rubs his face against his neck trying to comfort him.

“When we get back home, I’ll make you some nice hazelnut soup and we can forget all about that evil man,” she coos, “I’ll fix your hair up and everything will be as good as new. We can even move if you want. Forget all about this whole affair and you ever leaving the tower again.”

Luke sniffles. Maybe she’s right about this whole thing. Maybe he is just stupid and ditzy and trusting and he should have known better than to trust a strange man falling into his tower window.

***

“There! Like it never even happened,” Mother says, plucking the last flower from Luke’s hair. The braid is long since undone, golden hair spilling out all around, covering the tower floor. The room feels cold, dark and damp now that he’s been outside in the real world. He feels small and constricted in here, trapped. He misses the grass, the sun, having Michael splash him with water laughing while Luke shrieked at him. This little room, up here at the top of the world, feels empty. 

Mother stands up from the bed, making her way over to the window to dump the flowers out of it. “Now, wash up for dinner. I remember promising you hazelnut soup and even though you’ve been very naughty and disobeyed me, I can forgive you and make you some of your favorite soup.”

She dumps the flowers out the window, looking at Luke expectantly. When he doesn’t respond, too busy picking at a loose thread on the bed cover, she sighs. “I really did try to warn you, Luke. I tried to warn you about what was out there. But did you listen? No. The world is dark and selfish and cruel. It’s good that you learned it now, learned from your mistake so you won’t do it again. If it finds even the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys itz.” She slams the shutters closed on the window and the room feels even darker and colder now. Petunia peeks up at Luke from her hiding spot in his hair. He rubs his thumb over her head. 

“But he was so nice,” Luke whispers.

“That’s how the world gets you. It offers you false promises and then crushes you,” Mother says, making her way to the kitchen, “The sooner you learned it the better.”

She leaves Luke sitting on his bed. He tilts his head back, looking up at the ceiling. Carefully, he pulls one of the little sunburst flags out of his pocket. He unfurls it, tracing his finger over the sun. He doesn’t even have his ring anymore, he’d given it to Michael as a gift. He smiles a little sadly. He doesn’t quite miss the ring, but it was one of the few things he had that was his own. He flops back onto his bed, staring up at the painting on his ceiling. One of his painted suns on the wall catches his eye.

He looks at the flag again, narrowing his eyes. The sun looks exactly like the one on his wall. The one on his ring. Luke shoots up, holding the flag up to compare it to the one on his wall. They’re identical. He’s always modeled the sun that he paints off of his sunburst ring. But that means the sunburst ring matches the flag. And the closer he looks, the more he realizes he’s been painting little suns into everything. They’re there at the center of all his pictures, little sunbursts matching the one on the flag. 

Luke remembers Michael mentioning something about the reason for the lanterns. The floating lanterns were a gift for the lost prince, a light to guide him home every year on his birthday, was how Michael had described it. The lost prince of the kingdom. The crown that Michael had stolen that had been made for him. 

Luke jolts up from the bed, stumbling into his desk in his haste to get to the mirror. Vaguely, he can see the similarities between his own face and the face that was painted onto the kingdom’s wall of the Prince as a baby. His eyes are similar and his hair is blonde. He can see that his own face looks like the King’s, and the older Princes in the painting as well. Luke had the same sun ring. 

“Luke?” Mother calls, “Is everything okay up there?” 

The voice is getting closer. Luke can’t breathe. He  _ can’t breathe.  _ He doesn’t understand what this means. For years, this was his home, this was his  _ mother. _ But it’s all been a lie. She’s not his mother. She stole him, took him from his family, and now she’s taken him from Michael, from his own chance at freedom and happiness. She’s just as selfish and cruel and awful as the world she spent so many hours warning him about.

“Luke! What’s going on up there?” She’s close to the door now. Luke still can’t catch his breath, filled with shock and anger. Luke rounds on the door, flinging it open, catching Mother by surprise.

He draws himself up to his full height. He’s always slouched around Mother, not wanting to be taller than her. Now, though, Luke can’t bring himself to care. She’s been lying to him this whole time. She’s been  _ lying. _

“I’m the lost prince.”

“Please speak up Luke, you know I hate mumbling.”

“I’m the lost prince. Aren’t I?” Luke yells. 

Mother’s face drops. The dread of the confirmation fills him. “Did I mumble, Mother? If that’s even what I should call you.”

“Luke, darling, do you even hear yourself?” She recovers quickly, making to hug Luke and cooing. He takes a step back.

“It was you! It was all you!” 

Her face darkens. She pulls herself up, trying to match Luke’s height. Luke stands his ground, refusing to be intimidated by her.

“Everything I did was to protect you.”

“I’ve spent my entire life hiding from people, scared to leave this tower because you kept telling me people would use me for my power, my gift. But it was you! I should have been hiding from you! Michael was right to try and tell me I should leave this place,” he says, shoving past her and trying to make his way down the small flight of stairs in the tower. She follows closely behind him.

“Where will you go, Luke? He’s not coming for you. He’s never coming for you. I made sure of that.”

“What did you do?” Luke whispers.

She smirks. “He’s a criminal. And criminals must hang for their crimes. Especially when they steal the kingdom’s jewels.”

“No,” Luke gasps quietly.

“Now, now it’s alright,” She coos, getting close to Luke moving to lay her hand on his hair, “Listen to me. All of this is as it should be.”

Luke grabs her wrist just as it’s about to rest on his hair. “No, you’re what's wrong with the world. You were wrong about the world out there. It was good and kind and amazing. Michael was amazing. He never once treated me like I was something to possess. And I will never let you make me feel like that again!”

She yanks her wrist back, smirking at Luke. “Fine, you want me to be the bad guy? I’ll be the bad guy.”

Luke’s vaguely aware of the fact that he can see Petunia’s panicked expression from her place in the corner of the room before the world goes dark around him.

***

Luke comes to hearing Michael screaming his name. It startles him into awareness, looking around frantically. He is thrilled, happy that Michael’s alive and that he’s come to save him. He was right, Michael wouldn’t leave him. He is pure of heart and kind and he wouldn’t leave him. Luke makes to pull himself forward, when he realizes that he’s been trapped.

He’s been tied up, hands behind his back, chained together. There’s a bandana wrapped around his mouth and he keeps trying to scream, to let Michael know that he’s here but he can’t. He’s watching Mother take his hair and throw it out the window, in order to lure Michael up into the tower. She’s making eye contact with Luke, smirking the whole time. 

Michael pops into view, dragging himself over the ledge and scrambling into the window.

“Luke! I thought I would never see you again,” Michael rushes out, relief evident in his face and voice. 

There’s a beat where Michael finally sees Luke and registers exactly what the scene is before him. He sees Luke tied up and his mouth forms around the words, starts to say something, when Mother comes up behind him and stabs him in the side. Michael flinches, hands coming to his side as he collapses onto the ground. The blood starts to seep out of the wound, dripping down around his fingers where they’re pressed to his side. His face goes white. Luke screams frantically around the bandana. 

Michael falls further onto his side, flinching even more at the impact of his hand on the wound.

Mother tuts at Luke. “Now look what you’ve done, sweetheart. Well, don’t worry, our secret will die with him.”

Michael’s face goes even paler at the words. Luke’s heart aches. Luke’s desperate now, knows that if Mother would just let him free he could save Michael. Michael keeps losing more and more blood, staining his shirt a dark color.

“That can’t be good,” Michael mumbles, wincing in pain when Mother kicks him slightly as she makes her way over to Luke. 

She grabs his face in her hand, smiling wickedly at him, “As for us, we are going somewhere that no one can ever find us again.”

She drops Luke’s face, grabbing the chain she’d used to hold him captive and starting to pull on it. He struggles, desperate to get to Michael and save him. Petunia makes her way over to Michael, licking his face tentatively when she reaches him. Luke can see Michael’s lips lift into a semblance of a smile when he feels it.

“Luke, really now! Stop with all the fussing,” Mother complains, tugging harder against the chains as he fights against her, “Enough already! This is for your own good! Stop fighting me!” She tugs on the chain again, causing him to stumble backwards and land on the ground. The bandana falls from his mouth. 

“I won’t! I won’t stop fighting you for the rest of my life, no matter what you do or where we go,” Luke spits out. He glances behind him at Michael. He’s almost curled in on himself now, blood still coming from his wound. His hands are shaking slightly from where they’re pressed to his side and he’s lost almost all of his color.

Luke turns back to Mother, “But if you let me save him, I’ll go with you. I’ll do anything you ask and I won’t fight it.”

“Luke, you can’t! It’s not worth it, I’m not worth it,” Michael says from where he’s lying.

Luke ignores him, “I’ll never run, I’ll never try to escape. Just let me heal him and you and I will be together, just like we always have been. Together forever, away from the world, just like you want. Everything will be like it was, I promise.” 

Luke is pleading now, he knows it. Knows he’s begging her to listen to him when she’s never done it before. But this is bargaining. This is giving her exactly what she wants. 

She narrows her eyes at him. “If I let you do this, you’ll do what I say?”

He nods. “Just let me heal him.”

Mother lets out an exaggerated sigh, but drops the chain on Luke. She grabs the chains attached to Luke’s wrists, unlocking them and grabs them to use on Michael. Luke can see he’s trying to fight, struggling against her, but he keeps coughing and he’s lost so much blood that it doesn’t do much. She drags Michael back to one of the pillars in the tower, shoving him against it and using the chain to tie first his torso to it.

“Now don’t get any ideas,” she says, shoving his face away from her.

Luke scrambles over, collapsing down next to Michael and touching his face, holding it in his hands. “Michael!”

“Sunshine,” Michael mumbles, coughing and wincing before he can get anything else out. Luke whimpers, pushing Michael’s hands aside to assess the stab wound. It’s dark and red, even worse up close.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Everything is going to be okay.”

“You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to sacrifice yourself for me.” Michael lays his hand over Luke’s, smiling weakly.

Luke chokes back his own sobs, “I have to, though. It’s what you do for love. You have to trust me, okay? I’ve never been more sure of anything. Just keep breathing, okay?”

Luke grabs a chunk of his hair, trying to push it at Michael. Michael shakes his head, keeps whispering “no,” trying to push Luke away. 

“Michael, please.”

“I can’t let you do this.”

“I can’t let you die.”

“But if you do this, you won’t ever be free again. You’ll _ die. _ ”

Luke smiles, “It’s okay. I have one perfect memory for the rest of my life. It’ll be alright.”

Michael raises his hand, brushing Luke’s cheek lightly, wiping away one of his tears, “I love you, Sunshine.”

Luke barely registers what happens next. One moment, Michael’s hand is on his face and in the next, he feels the swish of something across the back of his neck, and the weight of his hair disappears. He startles, watching as the flowing hair he’s grown accustomed to falling down around him. Michael gives him one last smile, collapsing as he closes his eyes, a shard of broken mirror slipping from his fingers. 

Luke frantically grabs the back of his neck. His hair is gone, laying around him as it changes from it’s glowing blonde to a darker blonde ish-brown. Luke can feel the magic leaving it, leaving him as his only chance to save Michael disappears. Luke can barely register what’s happening to Mother, as she screams and ages rapidly, falling out the window. Luke is so focused on the realization that Michael is  _ gone.  _ Mother’s gone and he doesn’t even get to have Michael. 

He lets out a sharp cry, grabbing onto Michael’s face, tears rolling freely down his cheeks. Michael’s given himself up for Luke, done this one selfless thing just for him and he won’t even get to share his freedom with him, won’t get to share his new life with him. 

Michael lets out one last cough, opening his eyes, smiling. Luke tries to frantically grab Michael’s hand, resting it on his hair. 

“No, no no, you have to be okay,” Luke rushes out, trying to sing the song he’s always done to heal things. Nothing happens. Michael’s eyes droop even more. 

“Luke?” Michael whispers, squeezing Luke’s hand tightly.

“Yeah?”

“You were my new dream.”

Luke lets out a wet laugh. “And you were mine.”

Luke feels it when Michael takes his last breath, stops breathing, stops  _ moving _ entirely. Luke lets out a slight wail, tears flowing out of his eyes and down his cheeks as he sobs. He can’t stop, cupping Michael’s face between his hands, humming the rest of the song in vain, as he rests his forehead against Michael’s. A few tears slip out, landing onto Michael’s cheeks. 

The tear glows, a bright little burst of color on Michael’s cheek. Luke pulls back, startled. Michael’s wound glows, little sunbeams of light streaming from it, filling the room in light and warmth. It surrounds the two of them in a burst and disappears.

Michael coughs.  _ Michael coughs!  _ He opens his eyes a crack, looking up at Luke.

“Michael!” Luke screams, filled with joy and wonder, throwing his arms around him in a tight hug, sobbing in relief.

“Whoa, easy there Princess, I’ve only just risen from the dead, you know. You have to be gentle with me,” Michael teases, wrapping him up into his arms just as tightly. Luke can feel Michael’s own tears, staining the material of his shirt.

Luke lets out a wet laugh, pulling back to take Michael in. His face is full of color, blue-green eyes full of delight and a smile on his lips. He surges forward, holding Michael’s face in his hands, as he kisses him deeply on the lips. Michael returns the kiss, grinning widely against his mouth. Luke pulls back, peppering kisses across Michael’s cheeks, his nose, his forehead. Michael laughs delightedly, letting Luke have his fill before kissing him again gently on the lips.

“I missed you, Mikey,” Luke whispers, pressing their foreheads together.

“I was only gone for a day.”

“Still too long. And you’re the one who said I was your new dream.” 

“Alright, don’t get a big head about it, after all you said the same thing,” Michael teases, kissing Luke on the nose. Luke giggles.

“Michael, I have a surprise.”

“Hm?”

“I think I’m the lost prince.”

Michael pauses, “Well then what are we waiting for? You wanted adventure. What’s more of an adventure than getting to go meet you parents?”

Michael stands up, shaking the chains from around him, “We’d better start out now if we want to make it there while it’s still light out.”

“Michael?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re going to come with me, right?”

Michael grins widely. “Of course, Sunshine. Can’t risk leaving you out in the world all alone. What if some other handsome thief comes by and tricks you into falling in love? I can’t have that happen.”

Luke smiles, throwing his arms around him in a hug. “Thank you, Mikey.”

“Hey, what are dreams for?” Michael smiles, returning the hug. 

Luke feels warm and happy. Maybe he gets to finally be happy now. Maybe he gets to have a series of perfect, wonderful moments with the love of his life. After all, what are dreams for?  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr!](https://pixiegrl.tumblr.com/) Talk to me about Stardust, 5sos, Luke Hemmings, or you can sidetrack me by giving me more fic ideas


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